Off the top of my head, most of those places are near Pacific ports. Easy access to ship the cars and/or parts to China or other similar destinations might be the explanation. Probably harder to get away with that in Europe for a variety of reasons.

I say that because I know a guy who liked to have cranes ‘disappear’ off the dock in CA. At least that’s what he told the bank happened. My guess was it was in Beijing helping prepare for the Olympics.

Mmmm. I wonder what the CA law enforcement have to say about this.
These clowns make it a habit to treat car theft like a nuisance. Their attitude is ‘we have more important things to do’ than wasting time on car thefts.

I think Jerry Brown and the Sierra Club are behind all the California thefts. Get those damned pollution devices off the road so people are forced to take the “Train to Nowhere”. No wonder they call it the Granola State.

I will never understand how car manufacturers can incorporate technologies like adaptive cruise control, lane departure warnings, freakin’ in-car heartbeat detectors, etc., but they can’t design an ignition system to thwart a bunch of meth-addled highschool dropouts.

To add to what toxicroach was saying, I wonder how come Newark, NJ wasn’t in the top 20 – given that the Port Authority of NY-NJ terminals, lots of highways for convenient movement of cargo facilitates the shipping of stolen vehicles to other countries.

I doubt Mexico has anything to do with it. The only area it can really explain is San Diego. It’s a long drive from the Bay Area/Central Valley to Mexico. Besides, as johnthacker said above, if thieves take cars to Mexico, why don’t we see any cities in TX on this list?

Ever notice how Modesto, Fresno, Bakersfield and Stockton, California are on almost every one of these “Worst ____ in the U.S.” lists? Worst real estate market, worst employment, some of the worst crime.

I’d be willing to put up with a lot of the craziness in order to live on the California coast. But the Central Valley sounds like one of the most absolutely awful places in the U.S.

Spokane Washington? I’m surprised to see that. Back in the 80’s I spent a fair amount of time there because of the AHRA sanctioned dragstrip and lots of cheap musclecars and junkyards full of rare stuff. In those days getting arrested in Spokane was all too easy. Nice folks, but they didn’t tolerate any crap back then.
Times change I guess.

That one went right over my head.
I only have good memories of Spokane. Except for getting arrested that one time. And the cop was actually a pretty decent guy.
Last year my wife and I passed through Spokane and I insisted on heading out to the old dragstrip. It’s still there, but there is a massive casino and hotel where the overflow parking used to be. The Bagdad Motel is gone. No more B-52s taking off every 30 minutes. Didn’t see Moe Orville anywhere. Like I said, times change.

Spokane in the 80’s was a nice place. i have been here my entire life. the early 90’s is when spokane went to s**t. i have personally had 3 cars stolen from me(all being japanese cars). within the last 6 months i personally know 9 ppl that have had vehicles stolen as well. meth isnt quite the issue here that it used to be. early 2000’s we were in the top 3 for meth related crimes and meth busts but that number has dropped over the last few yrs

It’s not a blue vs. red story. The Greens have shut off Sacramento delta water to the central valley, creating even more poverty than would exist there normally. The valley is huge, a car is needed to get anywhere, and the poor are stealing from the poor – it’s not BMWs and E-classes being stolen, but older Fords, Chevys and Dodges, I’ll guess half of them trucks.

If you live in a dessert, you don’t have a right to as much water as you want pumped in from somewhere else. If the farmers in the Central Valley had their way, they’d pump in humongous quantities of water, and their land would be completely saturated with salt and dead within 10 years. It’s the West. There’s not enough water to go around. The greens have fought for and won the right to restore to natural channels a mere fraction of the water that nature once provided. When it comes to water in the West, everybody makes compromises. That’s just the way it goes.

Fifteen of the 20 cities are in California or Washington. However Oregon is absent. Lax laws and easy access to the deep water ports and Mexico as you go further south?

Seattle has gotten “better” over the last couple of years – the rate was even higher. A lot of the theft previously was simple joy riding because the laws were so lax. The courts do catch and release and even adult offenders have to be caught/released something like 5 to 7 times before they see any serious county jail time. Juveniles? Pffffttt…they all but pat them on the head and tell them, “don’t be seen driving stolen cars in these parts again, or we’ll give you another lollipop.”

The Newark-Hoboken area used to be the chop shop capital of America. I believe the Feds closed most of them while going after traditional organized crime families and RICO convictions. When the penalties jumped from months or at most a couple of years of state time too decades of federal, most fled the area.

Not surprised and I’d be surprised if many of those cars that were stolen were newer than 2004 when 99.99% of all cars sold had an immobilizer system. Mazda finally fitted their entry level car, the Mazda3 with it in 2004 when it made its debut, but the Protege and Protege5 missed out as I found out with my P5 (not, it’s not been stollen but some punk got in and took a few sundry items, nothing of any real value and left potentially valuable items and never touched the way back where I had my cheap set of roadside tools in a Huffy bag.

And I’d just put in a decent JVC double din head unit that weekend with USB, Aux and Bluetooth and it is still in the car.

And this occurred in Seattle back in late May.

As to the list, not surprising to say the least.

And I should say that the guy from Safelite auto glass who came out to clean up and replace my driver’s door window said he’s seeing an increase in petty crimes of stealing basic stuff. Apparently, people are getting desperate in this economy as he’d just done 6 windows prior to mine.

well if seattle is anything like spokane it will only get worse. our city government here got rid of the property theft unit around late summer last year. there has been a HUGE rise in home invasions and car theft since.